Monday, September 15, 2008

Before the puppet show, Saturday night, a friend and I had dinner at Sushi Love. We decided that we would try their 2-for-1 special with individual nigiri pieces, instead of rolls. It's a good deal, but if you get carried away it's still not cheap, by any means. I'd tried one of their crab wontons when a bunch of us got the boat load, so I suggested that we start off with an order of them as an appetizer. I love these things and I don't normally get excited about similar fried crab things at other Asian restaurants.

We got a lot of nigiri. We got too much nigiri. My friend had forgotten that you get two pieces with every order. Oh dear. We gave it the good fight, but we still had two pieces left when we were finished. It was very sad.

I ordered raw scallop nigiri for the first time. I'd had small pieces in rolls before, but not large slabs of raw scallop. It tasted very scallopy. Unlike many things that actually taste completely different when they are raw compared to their cooked state (e.g. tuna), this tasted the same and had a similar texture, but the flavor was much stronger.

We got some tuna, toro (fatty tuna) and some special otoro (fattier tuna). It's funny that I'm finding that I'm enjoying tuna more and more. I used to think it was boring, but I've been eating so much tuna tartare and sashimi at Blu that I'm really beginning to appreciate the subtleties and smooth texture of the fish. I'd tried toro before and was unenthused, but this time I liked both toro and otoro quite a bit.

Did Sushi Love pass the mackerel test? I'd say yes. It was very good, but maybe not quite as fantastic as Kurama's mackerel. I also wanted to try the raw squid, because I'd never had that before either, but they were out. That gives me something to look forward to!

I am so thankful for sushi love. I've never tried the sushi at Kurama. I always get the teppanyaki. Oh how I love the ginger dressing! You're making a strong case for the sushi though. I may have to give it a try next time.